Sonic Colors (Wii)
Appeal is an important element of any game series, and while Sonic the Hedgehog has often tried to fall under the “family” banner where players of any age can play it, Sonic Colors clearly tries to tell a simple story that appeals to children. However, appeal can go beyond just targeting specific demographics, because while Sonic Colors on Wii can feel a bit corny when its trying to cater to kids, it can also easily wow with an impressive approach to visual design and music. In a series already known for excellent music, Sonic Colors’s magnificent soundtrack could rightfully put forth the claim it might be the best in the series, and with an outer space amusement park setting, it even delivers on dazzling visuals that don’t miss a beat despite the Wii’s graphical limitations. The game’s appeal ends up spread out in an unusual manner because of the type of attention its artistic side receives, but it’s no surprise this colorful and jovial platformer felt like a huge shift back on release 2010 after many Sonic games like Sonic Unleashed and Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 attempted to embrace serious ideas and darker visuals.
Sonic Colors takes place at an amusement park created by the mad scientist Dr. Eggman, and while he claims it is a form of penance for his years of evil deeds, Sonic the Hedgehog and his pal Tails are immediately suspicious of their old nemesis and rightfully so. While there is, in-fact, a functional and elaborate amusement park, it is unfortunately powered by captured aliens from a species known as Wisps, and it is clear Dr. Eggman has bigger plans for the power they provide than just keeping the rides running. The speedy blue hedgehog sets to making things right quickly, busting any Wisps he can find free and taking out the robots that serve as park security while doing so, and while some cockiness and one-liners are a bit expected from the hero with an attitude, the scenes that feature updates on the ongoing plot certainly feel like they’re written to appeal to a very young demographic. Early on, the genius inventor fox Tails creates a translator device but hasn’t quite deciphered the Wisp language yet, and for much of the game going forward, every scene will have him misinterpreting the Wisps first before figuring out what they actually meant to say. This could have lead to some silly situations, and in some cases it does like when Sonic and Tails learn the Wisps have a funny name for Eggman, but other times it feels like the random nonsense is meant to be funny on its own and the characters don’t even attempt to build off that to make jokes most of the time. A generally light-hearted tone does feel a good fit for the game, but the writing feels incredibly uncreative so it’s hard to imagine anyone beyond children in elementary school actually being amused by it.
The scenes are rare and pretty short so it’s easy to nod along and wait for the game to move onto the action, and Sonic Colors has definitely constructed some vivid feasts for the eyes. The amusement park isn’t just in outer space as Eggman has linked chains to other planets to pull them in to serve as parts of it as well. Not only will you get the beautiful glittering lights of a theme park set against the twinkling stars of the universe, but different worlds feature areas built out of food so you’re dodging missiles full of jelly beans and dashing through piles of popcorn. An area called the Asteroid Coaster lives up to its name and even features one level entirely based on running around the rings of Saturn, but natural beauty can be found too as Planet Wisp still has its amusements under constructions so beautiful green spaces can coexist with more metallic architecture. Sonic Colors is a platformer so a lot of level space needs to serve a practical purpose, but there are definitely significant stretches where a stage asks nothing of you but to sit back and watch the sights pass you by. This can mean if you were looking for some action, these sight-seeing stretches can feel rather shallow, but it’s hard to complain when an entire armada of ships has been retooled into a light parade you run past on a ribbon of glowing light. The music definitely adds to the energetic atmosphere, the games introductory vocal track already a lovely techno rock track and future stages even feature symphonic scoring. Stage tracks like Tropical Resort will work to get you pumped for this new adventure while Aquarium Park can produce some surprisingly beautiful and serene background music.
Getting swept up in the visual and aural feast isn’t hard, but sometimes the gameplay does add some unimpressive repetition to it as huge chunks of levels can be found reused in another stage, Planet Wisp not even hiding it too well. On the other hand, that isn’t necessarily a condemnation of the game’s level design, but it does certainly feel like the activities at the amusement park aren’t providing the kind of thrills their visuals prime you for. Sonic can travel levels in two main ways, sometimes running forward in a 3D environment while at other times the game locks into a 2D side-scrolling view. The 2D view is heavily favored, likely because it has the tighter controls and it simplifies engaging with level geometry when the game can guarantee you cross certain platforms or have to address certain enemies and hazards to progress. The 3D segments can sometimes be quite lacking, Sonic sometimes given a large runway to sprint forward and even a boost power he can build up with Wisps to quickly get up to a decent speed. These segments don’t always know how to impede this speedy sprint though, such as turns where you are told to slide to take them more cleanly but there doesn’t often seem to be any incentive to avoid hitting against the safety rails that make it so you don’t even need to play it safe. Sometimes instead though the game will lock Sonic into a lane of the space ahead and you can quickly zip between lanes, this sometimes dragging on a little long when you’re dodging laser-firing foes who indicate their intent to attack too obviously but at others where you need to weave through objects at a breakneck speed it feels like a sound concept that tests your reflexes and sometimes even your decisions making.
Many levels in Sonic Colors will have portions where you can take multiple routes forward, the player needing to pick which path they think might be the most rewarding. It will often be harder to climb up to the top route and easy to fall down from it so you’re more likely to have your skill tested if you pursue such paths, but they aren’t often very rewarding beyond the intrinsic value of tackling something a bit tougher to overcome. Every level in Sonic Colors features Special Rings. Sonic normally collects gold rings as a form of health, Sonic able to survive as long as he has some in store but they burst out of him when he’s hit and he’ll die if he is hit before he can grab any more. Special Rings though are large red rings positioned in tricky spots in levels that are meant to encourage you to explore and properly utilize pieces of the environment. The reward for them is a bit underbaked though, these mostly going towards unlocking bonus levels over in Game Land’s Sonic Simulator. While the Sonic Simulator plays similarly to the normal game and has a cute twist that the Virtual Hedgehogs you can play as in single player or swapping multiplayer are meant to be seen as villains since Eggman designed the simulator, the levels are barren visually. While there are some nifty level concepts over in the simulator and even recreations of a few levels from the original Sonic the Hedgehog game on Genesis like Spring Yard Zone and Scrap Brain Zone, the computer aesthetic used feels soulless. It’s a bit hard to get excited for a new Game Land stage when they are so spartan in appearance, the red rings feeling like a less exciting reason to explore because of it but the quick challenge of grabbing one can still be a brief and nifty shift in how you think about the stage you’re in.
Levels can, unfortunately, end very quickly and abruptly, especially if you aren’t searching for red rings and only care about completion. This does allow an optional ranking system to come into play where you can try to earn higher letter grades if you beat levels quickly, but again the motivation feels absent, the ranks only really numbers on a tally and not even providing simple Sonic Simulator stages. Many levels also put unfortunate invisible barriers behind you once you reach certain parts, meaning you can’t always try to grab a red ring if you accidentally zoom past it at the high speed the game encourages. Much of the game will be played in the 2D side-scrolling mode where making such errors is less likely, and there are some decent challenges to be found in this more tightly designed segments. Beyond Sonic’s speed, jumping, and a homing attack that lets him easily launch himself at enemies or springs to help keep his momentum and traverse open air, Sonic will sometimes encounter Wisps trapped in capsules he can bust free and utilize for special transformations. Some of these have huge dedicated areas in a level like the digging Wisp that lets you drill through large subterranean areas or even blitz through underwater areas or the green Wisp that lets you fly about for a limited time, but others like the orange Wisp launch you up into the air like a rocket and then as you drift down you’re usually only really aiming to grab some goodies before hitting the ground again. It is still interesting to see a Wisp capsule pop up as sometimes its intended purpose might not even be clear right of the bat, and other times you might even need to be patient and pass up a few chances to use it to get the best reward it can provide. In some ways, Sonic Colors wants it shorter levels to have replay value by having you unlock Wisp types in later levels so you can return to earlier stages and explore them, but the Special Rings feel like the only reason to do so, and of the 42 levels to feature them, it still feels easy enough to grab around 3 of the 5 rings a level has on a first visit if you’re attentive.
Level concepts can still sustain a stage well enough even if you’re not doing too much for too long. It is neat to drill down through layers of cake or pop on the purple wisp and go on a ferocious rampage for a bit, and level theming like Aquarium Park’s mix of water and traditional Japanese architecture at least lead to a lot of neat things to climb or run through. The six regular worlds all cap off with a boss fight each, although only three of them are unique with each one making an encore appearance with some alteration that isn’t always a game changer. Some of these can be fast and easy as well but they are at least active enough that you won’t be bugged by any low difficulty. The ring system can even give them a little bite, and while the overall adventure isn’t often too difficult, it does have occasional linchpin moments where smart jumping and maneuvering through some tough dangers do briefly get you to sit up and pay more attention to your actions. Sonic Colors has its moments where it’s a cakewalk or practically automatically playing itself, but it still remembers to have moments that test your skill so that you don’t end up hitting the game’s ending too quickly despite the high movement speed.
THE VERDICT: Gorgeous environments and music that provides a wonderful treat for the ears make Sonic Colors’s amusement park atmosphere truly dazzling, and it wouldn’t be a reach to say the presentation helps make the fairly standard speedy platforming easier to accept. Some running segments feel fairly plain and stage designs can occasionally feel like they lack vision, but the Wisps can briefly energize a level and Sonic Colors still remembers to throw in enough challenging moments that the adventure doesn’t grow outright stale. The Special Rings and the so-so Game Land levels they unlock add a small incentive to get more out of this swiftly completed adventure, but Sonic Colors’s acceptable but not outstanding gameplay elements feel like they can’t quite match the lovely work from the art and music team.
And so, I give Sonic Colors for Nintendo Wii…
An OKAY rating. While the joke writing that feels like it underestimates the sense of humor of even young players could have been easy to overlook, Sonic Colors really feels like it needed more electrifying stage layouts to match the magnificent displays and symphonic music that accompany the action. The Wisps are often treated as helpful power-ups but could have perhaps had more levels where they get the sole spotlight, certain stages like one focused heavily on the floating green Wisp presenting an interesting balancing act and many routes that stands out because of its distinct presentation and reliance on mechanics separate from the norm. Sometimes a distinct level goes by too quickly though, and other times Sonic Colors will just show you a wondrous sight while your input is holding forward or jumping right and left to alternate which rail you’re riding on. The 45 story levels have some that shine as they fully embrace a new mechanic or a broader level concept, but then you’ll get some that whizz past and you feel a little empty afterwards. The Special Rings are a smart way to get you to consider the level’s layout more and would be a nice reason to return to stages if the reward for doing so was more impressive, but the Sonic Simulator stages are likely so basic because adding 21 fully realized stages as bonus content would be hard to justify as a nifty extra. The Special Rings feel like they’re in an odd spot since clearly level designs are sometimes built to accommodate the quest to find them all both in level length and the shape of a stretch of stage geometry, but perhaps the core game being more inspired in general would make the quest feel worthwhile simply because you’d be happy to return to stages. As it is now, going through once can be a decent challenge and it’s neat to see if the next level has anything new in terms of sights or one of the more skillful challenges, but consistency is certainly an issue.
Sonic Colors would end up getting a remake with Sonic Colors: Ultimate, seemingly because it was a bright and beloved shift in direction for the series after it had undergone a so-called “Dark Age” from 2005-2009. Sonic Colors can provide a swell time certainly, it’s got a few areas that aren’t the cleanest like when content reappears flagrantly, invisible walls bar exploration, and 3D movement barely asks much of you, but it never really grates on the player and the presentation can easily put you in a good mood. The plain gameplay contrasts with the bright world and sounds but it’s not entirely empty either. Sonic Colors may not be the series’s apex outside of the art department, but series fans or people looking for a pleasant speedy platformer won’t likely be turned off by it even though it will still feel like it has room to be so much more.